Please do not click further into this site if you are easily offended or disturbed by graphic images. We reserve the right to repost any messages transmitted to us. To leave this site now, click here.

Saddam Hussein being captured

From the Urban Legends Reference Pages: The above photograph, purportedly showing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein being dragged from his "spider hole" by U.S. forces, surfaced on the Internet on 7 January 2004. Hussein, who went into hiding after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, was captured on the outskirts of his home town, Tikrit, on 13 December 2003. So far all the only "official" information we've heard about this picture is that the Pentagon is "investigating whether the photograph is real and how it ended up on the Internet," but we haven't come across any strong reasons to doubt its authenticity. The appearance of Saddam in this picture matches how he looked when he was taken into custody, and the photograph shows no obvious signs of manipulation (other than the deliberate blurring of the pictured soldier's face). And even Pentagon officials have admitted that "soldiers may have had a camera with them."